Dimension-Data's Edvald Boasson-Hagen will start his season later than expected due to a gallbladder surgery.

The rider started feeling bad over the holidays and a check-up before joining the training camp in Spain confirmed that there was something wrong. "I didn't know what was the reason," said the rider to Norwegian website ProCycling.no. "I had pneumonia during Christmas and I had a lot of pain in my stomach.

"The pain got worse after my wedding and I decided to get checked up the day before joining the training camp in Spain to see why I was feeling so bad in my stomach."

The doctors confirmed that he had an infected inflammation in the gallbladder, which is normally caused by gallstones. Even though there weren't any stones found, the procedure for such inflammations is to remove it surgically, which causes the rider to adjourn his start of the season that was set to be in the Volta a la Comunidad Valenciana in Spain.

"The race in Valencia is not the most important part of my calendar, so I'm really glad that this happened now," he commented. "There is no reason to go around with a defective gallbladder and I still believe that I will be in shape for the classics."

Boasson-Hagen will now start the season in the Portuguese Volta ao Algarve in mid-February.